Tony began his musical career at age 10 taking up the Trumpet and taking lessons from Dick Skilicorn (The Sax Machine), later studying with Stewart Grow (President of the Salt Lake Musicians Union and musical contractor at The Valley Music Hall for many years) at age 16 took piano lessons from Ted Johnson (Played at Hotel Utah for years.) Later Tony  took  piano lessons from local SLC Musician Dan Waldis. Later on took guitar Lessons from local musician Scott Ferguson.  At age 18 Tony went to Weber State College on a Trumpet scholarship and formed a band with his sister and brother in law and started to play gigs for money.  At age 19 Tony found out that in two weekends of playing he made more than what his scholarship was worth so he dropped the scholarship and focused on general eds at school.  After 2 years he transferred to to U of U for 2 years. In 1976 tony had the opportunity to audition for the well known SLC group The New Citations and ended up going on the road to Western Canada with the group for approximately 2 and a half years. After that he came back to SLC and played in various bands and toured around the Western USA. In 1984 Tony hooked up with Local Musician Walt Gregory and formed the Walter & Hays Band (see Bio) till 1992. After that Tony went on to a solo career for the last 20 years.